Inedible parts of various plant species used in agriculture and sylviculture worldwide are a valuable potential resource for renewable and sustainable production of many organic chemical compounds for industrial uses. Enabling effective industrial uses of the non-food biomass for such needs would also alleviate societal concerns associated with the current industrial practices of converting some food-grade agricultural crop ingredients into non-food industrial products.
The operational difficulty and high costs of separation of the chief polysaccharide ingredients of the cellulosic biomass into usable chemical compounds such as pentoses and hexoses is well documented. Primary methods for solubilization and separating of polysaccharides occurring in cellulosic biomass involve use of reagents such as mineral acids, alkali, organic solvents or other chemical compounds of considerable cost, thereby requiring recovery and recycling in the process. Use of corrosive materials such as mineral acids also requires costly corrosion-resistant equipment. Methods which rely on uses of enzymes for depolymerization of cellulosic and hemicellulosic polymers also remain quite inefficient and costly. While it is possible to separate some of carbohydrates from cellulosic biomass in soluble form without addition of mineral acids, alkali, sulfur dioxide, ammonia or other chemical additives, the conditions for effecting hydrolytic solubilization and/or depolymerization of polysaccharides of the cellulosic biomass require operating hydrolysis at high temperature and under high pressure conditions.
Apparatuses known in the art and capable of continuously moving biomass solids against high pressure of the heated hydrolysis containment is also vulnerable to rapid abrasive wear due to action of dust, sand, rocks and other mineral particles incidentally associated with biomass solids, such as silica in cereal straw or hulls.